Politics

Governor tries to defuse fish board controversy with new names, but Bristol Bay cries foul

JUNEAU — Gov. Bill Walker announced three new appointments to the state fish board Tuesday, including one that could be divisive for Bristol Bay and Kenai Peninsula commercial fishermen.

Two of the appointments are to seats that have traditionally — though informally — been designated for people who represent sportfishing interests and should be relatively noncontroversial.

Alan Cain of Anchorage, a former state wildlife trooper, was named to replace Robert Mumford, who will resign from the fish board in March less than a year after Walker appointed him.

Israel Payton of Wasilla, who has worked as a hunting and fishing guide for nearly 20 years, was appointed to fill one of two seats on the board that expires in June.

Robert Ruffner of Soldotna, an environmental scientist at the conservation group Kenai Watershed Forum, was named for the other.

Walker also tried to appoint Ruffner to the fish board last year to fill an informally designated sportfishing seat. But Ruffner was narrowly rejected by the state Legislature following attacks from the powerful Kenai River Sportfishing Association, who viewed him as too sympathetic to the commercial fishing industry.

Ruffner would now fill an informally designated commercial fishing seat, which should draw less opposition from sportfishing groups. But the man he'd replace, Fritz Johnson, hails from Dillingham and holds a seat that's historically been held by people with ties to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, in Southwest Alaska's Bristol Bay region.

ADVERTISEMENT

"It feels like we got stabbed in the back," Robin Samuelson, the board chair of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and himself a former fish board member, said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. "Having the biggest salmon runs in the world demands that we have somebody who knows about the fishery on the Board of Fish."

Samuelson, who rode in Barack Obama's SUV when the president visited Bristol Bay in September, said he was in Juneau on Tuesday and was planning to meet with Walker.

In response to Samuelson's objections, Walker's office released a prepared statement saying he met Tuesday with Samuelson and Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, "to hear their concerns."

"My administration is in the process of forming an advisory group to the governor to determine what improvements can be made to the Board of Fish, and I hope to recruit Mr. Johnson to be a part of that group," the statement quoted Walker as saying.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

ADVERTISEMENT